Thursday, January 29, 2015

I am astonished to this day that anyone votes Republican. Now that is not to say that the Democrats are a beacon of hope. They suck almost as hard. However, as of right now, even then most corporate Democrat is not hell bent on turning this country into a feudal state complete with fiefdoms and serfs. That is exactly the end game of the GOP and, mote importantly, the Koch Brothers. Thanks to the end of Citizen's United, we no longer live in a democracy and the people filling that void left over are these two assholes.
I noticed something this week while watching PBS News, which can be both an excellent sort of news channel and crappy shills a second later. It's a lot like Fox News. On a quick side note, will someone call CNN and tell them just to stop. JUST STOP! Their coverage lately of just about anything is sophomoric at best and it's really starting to piss me off. And Don Lemon needs to go away, really earning his worst newscaster award, barely beating out Sean Hannity who had a fit about it, even though that award seem accurate, too. But I digress.

Anyway, while watching the PBS news last night, they announced a piece about the Koch Brothers. Knowing full well that the Koch Brothers fund said newscast, I was waiting for some puff piece about these two demons. I was not disappointed. What followed was a fifteen minute bit about how great these guys were and they were not subjugating democracy in any way. The funny part is how unconformable Gwen Ifill looked during the entire interview, as if she knew she was trying to sell Hitler votes to the Jews. "He loves Jews, Really," Retch, retch, retch.
She was not alone in what appears to be a full court press this week, with Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Republican pundits everywhere screaming that democrats are "obsessed" with the Koch Brothers who are only acting like every other American trying to get their point across and the proposed billion dollars to be spent in 2016 is no big deal. Except it is and it is killing our country bit by bit. We can see with our own eyes how bad these two dick-noses have been by promoting an agenda most of us do not want, like the elimination of Social Security, the minimum wage and the Postal Service. I like all three a lot and would like to keep them thank you. My so called "agenda" is that I do not want super rich assholes telling me what I can and can't do and keeping me in grinding poverty at the same time. The only people buying into this are stupid beyond words.

Want proof? Here's a good story from psmag.com:

As if we needed more proof of the power of money in politics, another field experiment, released in 2014, found a link between campaign donations and post-election Congressional behavior. Joshua Kalla and David Broockman, both University of California-Berkeley graduate students, worked with the liberal CREDO Action activist group to analyze politicians’ responses to donors in comparison to regular old constituents. Basically, the research team sent 191 members of Congress one of two emails: The first email asked the Congressperson, or their most senior staffer, to meet with “local campaign donors” about co-sponsoring a bill; the second email asked the Congressperson, or the senior staffer, to meet with “local constituents.”

Just 2.4 percent of the requests to meet with local constituents were accepted, while 12.5 percent of the requests to meet with political donors were granted. Taken with that aforementioned 2012 study by Powell, this gives unfortunate empirical evidence to what many Americans might already suspect: Money affects all spheres of politics, from campaigning to legislation to simple meetings.
This proves that congressman are more likely to meet and take orders from, large corporations who will be beholden to their interests. The Koch Brothers will be no different, pushing forward and agenda that even most Republicans do not want. Look at what the GOP has attempted to do so far: limit abortion to 20 weeks, a bill limiting gay rights and a heavy push for a pipeline we do not need. Funny how all that talk about jobs and job programs, and much like the last few decades, have NO idea how to create jobs with zero proposals. Yet, people are still voting for this. Unbelievable!

The rise of political money is reaching epic heights and some people out there, hard core idiots that is, are still fighting for this as if money equals free speech. Money drowns out free speech but giving rise to a huge unequal playing field. If this was football, the 1% would all be steroid pumped gigantors while we have a team of 90 pound weaklings all carrying hundreds of pounds in dead weight. In other words, the way things are, we cannot win. And unless we start addressing this problem, we will sink further and further into fascism until we reach a level we can't escape from.

On a quick side note, Ghostbusters announced their all female remake of the classic film and, of course, the misogynists have come out in droves. Ghostbusters is one of my all time favorite films, I hate, hate, HATE remakes, and even I can't wait to see this. Mellissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and, my favorite choice, Leslie Jones will be joining director Paul Feig in what I hope will be a laugh riot. Rumor is they are trying to get Bill Murray to play the villain which would make me very, very happy. The original cast was never going to get going, especially after the death of comic genius Harold Ramis, so I am thrilled to see a new take on it, especially from talent like this. Jones is fantastic, elevating every SNL sketch she is in, starring in her first big movie and all at the young age of 47. By the way, I almost fell over when I found out her age last year as she in no way looks 47. She is a real talent and I look forward to see her riffing with her co-stars. This also goes to show that fame can hit you at any age. Sure, you are far more likely if you are young and beautiful, but every now and then, someone like Jones comes along and makes anyone struggling to get noticed, believe they can make to. Keep up the good work Leslie. We love you.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Apparently, those south of me are bitching to high heaven how the storm of the century fizzled by them, bringing only an inch to areas like Philadelphia, eight inches to NYC and ten to some of NJ. This of course brought the global warming deniers out in full force complaining that if the weather forecasters can't get the forecast right 24 hours in advance, how likely is it they can see fifty years in the future, and to an extent, they have a point.

Weather forecasting is a lot of guess work as there are so many variables a slight change in just about anything can a storm's course as this one tracked father east. But, even though we may not be able to give an exact time table to our planet's destruction, all signs point to a warmer climate. Also, having studied this subject since the late 80's, I can tell you from personal experience that most of what scientists said would happen then, has, minus the few crackpots that spoiled it for everyone. And that is the problem with science today: there are way too many "experts" out there who either have an agenda or are certifiably insane and these douchebags are destroying any faith we have left in anyone anymore.

Here in MA, Storm Juno was the worst blizzard in the history of Central MA with three feet sitting outside my house right now. It is the worst blizzard I have ever been through anywhere and I have lived all over the North East. Our meteorologists did just fine, actually having nailed the storm path, the dangerous areas and snow totals. Part of the problem with forecasts may have less to do with science than the idiots they sometimes hire to do the weather forecasts. Take for example the most famous weatherman on TV, Al Roker. Al Roker has no weather related experience other than his years on TV. He holds a communications degree from State University in NY. In other words, I am far more qualified to forecast the weather than he is. Yet, there is his on TV regurgitating what other people are saying and lacking the ability to know whether it is accurate or not. I get the feeling that this would be the same for many in the areas that got the forecast so wrong. Why hire a real meteorologist when some pretty boy or girl will do? This is why when they screw up a forecast so profoundly.

Also, I found out today that there are prestigious sounding magazines, like The Journal for Orthopedic Science, which sounds real but isn't. While it is very similar sounding to the Journal OF Orthopedic Science it is actually a money scam which will print anything, no matter how stupid, for $500. Then these same junk studies are used as "proof" for whatever idiotic idea they are trying to propagate, like global warming is not occurring.

The excuse I keep hearing is that every time a single voice comes out against any established science, that person is immediately elevated to Galileo-like status, as if these kinds of geniuses are a dime a dozen. Isn't it more likely, that these people are crackpots or are receiving money from an industry hell bent on providing as much disinformation as possible?

Take the current anti-vaccination crowd. A "whistleblower" came forward recently and said the CDC was covering up the "fact" that black males under 3 years of age who get the Measles vaccine are three times more likely to get autism. The problem with this is we only have this guy's word. He provides zero evidence of said cover-up, a big red flag right there, and also suffers from what I call single person syndrome. If one person accuses another of something he needs real good proof and corroborating testimony. Since his accusations in September of last year, not one person at the CDC has come forward to agree with him. NOT ONE! If Bill Cosby had a single accuser against him we would all think she was full of it and rightfully so. 36 women later, not so much. Are to believe that everyone who works at the CDC is a heartless bastard who doesn't care about black people, babies none the less? Of course not. That's retarded. The most likely explanation is that Dr. William Thompson and Brian Hooker (not a doctor, shocker) are either insane or, more likely, paid to do the study which appeared in Translational Neurodegeneration which received this retraction soon after:Editor and Publisher regretfully retract the article [1] as there were
undeclared competing interests on the part of the author which compromised the
peer review process. Furthermore, post-publication peer review raised concerns
about the validity of the methods and statistical analysis, therefore the
Editors no longer have confidence in the soundness of the findings. We apologize
to all affected parties for the inconvenience caused.

In other words, Dr. Thompson and Hooker used unsound statistics to prove a theory that was never right to begin with most likely from a paycheck from an anti-vaccine group. And while I can find no proof of profit from the authors, the line "undeclared competing interests" strongly suggest a monetary link. And considering there are links to these two and Dr., I mean, Mr., Andrew Wakefield who lost his license for pedaling this crap, says loads about why this story is nothing more than hot air and people are buying into it because they are not smart enough to know better.

And then again we have deflategate, thankfully knocked off the news by the snow. It came out recently that the equipment manager disappeared into a bathroom with the balls before going out onto the field with them. How long was we gone you ask? 90 seconds. I dare anyone to perfectly deflate 11 balls in that amount of time. It is simply not possible. That hasn't stopped some with an unbelievable lack of understanding of physics to cry FOWL and say "SEE, see, they cheated!" Others, with more reason, know this impossible and see this as hate for a team that has been great for almost 15 years now. Sour grapes, guys. Sour grapes.

Science knowledge is so lacking from almost everyone that we believe things so stupid we might as well still be cavemen wondering where that big ball of light goes every night. Statistics show how dumb we are when one fifth still think Obama is a Muslim, 25% don't believe in evolution, 50% believe Iraq was behind 9/11, and, most shockingly, 20% think the sun revolves around the Earth which is ironic as that is the same person, Galileo, the wrong headed use to prove their point. Open a book people and stop believing what anyone tells you without looking into thoroughly. We are being led by the nose to own destruction and it's a complete lack of common sense that is responsible. It is this idiocy that explains why people still vote Republican, even though they have been talking the same talk for forty years and blame everyone but their own crappy policies for why things are not better.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Here in the northeast, we are bracing for what could be a record breaking snow forecast. At some point over the next few hours, feet of snow will fall, with my house being ground zero. Schools are closed for tomorrow and highways will be so unpassable that the governors of MA and CT have already told people they will shut down sometime between 9 PM and Midnight. Public transportation will also stop so wherever you are tonight, that's where you will be for the next few days.

If you do not get a new post for the next few days, it's most likely because I am sitting in the dark amusing myself with board games, books and, most likely, sex with my hot Japanese girlfriend. Life is good sometimes. But as I watch and wait for the storm to arrive, something occurs to me.

First off, here in New England, we have snow all the time. So why do people rush to the store to get things they should already have? I will be heading out shortly to get gas, a few things at the store and McDonald's. The news on the other hand show people buying loads of groceries and salt and other things that they should have already bought. I have had the same salt in my garage since 2007. How much do most people use? Are they sprinkling their food with it? If so, yuck.

The one good thing from this is the fact that Deflate-gate is finally off the air, which has to be one of the most pointless stories ever. Instead, we get to hear wall to wall storm coverage, which will most likely happen non-stop over the next 24 hours where reporters who drew the short straw get to sit outside and comment on how bitter and cold it is. On rare occasions, some poor reporters gets sprayed with a plow, or in the case of NBC news, peeing in the snow.

All of this has allowed the climate change deniers to crow in full about how some news article written fifteen years ago claimed an end to snow forever, so it must be a sign that all news is bull about the subject. If I hear about that Independent UK article from 2000, or the one in Newsweek in the 70's, that said global cooling was happening, one more time, I am going to kill someone. No single weather event is about global warming any more than a single winter storm, in winter of all times, signals an end to climate change.

Evidence strongly suggests that we are changing the environment and one of the reasons is that there are too many damned people on the planet. Several population deniers are also out in full force using Malthus' failed claims of overpopulation problems to bolster the idea that there is no threat. The problem is, he may ultimately be right, as technology may reach the limits of how it can feed people, especially with an unrealistic hatred for GMO foods which may not be as bad as some are claiming. Monsanto is a beast of company with questionable patents and are indeed destroying family farms but GMO's may not be as harmful as some are saying. We have been doing this type of genetic modification for centuries with no ill effects and just because we are using technology does not make it evil.

But much like climate change and vaccinations, one idiot writes a questionable scientific paper and everyone who can read and have little understanding of the subject believes it. My professor in college, Dr. Kenneth Fader, talked about this phenomenon in one of his classes. He remembered reading a book by Eric Von Daiken and how for the first half of the book he was fascinated with the idea of aliens visiting Earth. But then he got to section about Mayan glyphs, a subject he knew a great deal about and realized, everything he wrote about the subject was wrong. He went on to realize that the earlier stuff he read with great fanfare was also wrong, but as he didn't know as much about the subject, he assumed it was correct. Thus the lesson: if you read something you know little about, do not assume it is correct just because you do not understand it. And if you come across something that is definitely wrong, question everything else.

This is something few do anymore. They read something that fits into the world view and accept it as fact even if it is bull. And if anyone challenges it with facts, they dig in to their erroneous view. This is why we have so many well educated morons in this world not vaccinating their kids because they do not trust Big Pharma, doctors or even common sense anymore. Lack of trust is why societies die and we are headed right down that rabbit hole as no one seemed to remember the Republicans destroying this country, even blaming Obama for stuff he had no part in, like the death of unions or the economic collapse, both of which the GOP is going full steam ahead with.

The point of this is that too many out there believe in stuff that is not true, and provably so, but are unwilling to face facts even when it shoved in their face. Until we get a better educated group, and that includes those with Masters and PHDs, nothing is going to change. What will change is this society when it falls apart due to overpopulation, a changing environment and a collapsing economy. Read more, listen less. It will save your life.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Never in my life I have seen more time being devoted to a pointless, media driven story that may actually have ties to organized crime. I'll say it to the cheap seats: THIS STORY IS GARBAGE! I'll go into greater detail about that later in the article when I plan on spitting venom on the idiots propagating one of the most worthless, logically unsound arguments since the music industry forced Kanye West down our throats. Let's see those runner ups in a pissed off week.

10)Marc W. Henrickson of Grove College- This ass posted an op-ed piece in this week Telegram and Gazette and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no way he should be teaching economics to anyone. The article went to rip apart Tom Piketty's capitalism book in what can only be described as amateurish and provably wrong. An obvious supply side economic guy, which is odd as that philosophy has been absolutely disproven, he goes on to demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge about the subject he claims to have a PHD in. The best was his laughable claim that unsustainable wealth has never brought down a society before (I guess the French Revolution never happened in his world) and that this wealth gap is not getting worse, using the old adage of "'numerous studies" or "noted economists" without once referencing who these people or studies are, and that is most likely because they do not exist or are written in crayon. This dick is every reason why our kids are stupid beyond words and why voodoo economics is still thriving.

9)President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina- For all those feminists who wrongly claim that if women ran things, there would be no war, no corruption, just peace should take a long hard look at this story ignored by the MSM. Last week, a federal prosecutor said he had damning evidence against the current leader and, of course, was found dead a day later. The original theory was suicide, but new forensics suggest he was shot in the center of his forehead which is an odd way to kill one's self. Did she have this man killed to protect herself? All of this stemmed from allegations that Kirchner had shielded Iranian operatives from the worst terrorist bombing in the nation's history back in 1994, a case that has been over run by serious irregularities and pretrial cancelations for no apparent reason. It certainly looks suspicious.

8)Motorcycle Flash mobs- I have a lot of friends who ride motorcycles and worked the circuit for several years doing leather repairs so don't think I am against these types of vehicles. What I am against is morons speeding down the road at light speed, having witnessed one guy break his head open on the pavement after a huge wipeout, only to shocking walk out of the hospital the next day. In Miami this past MLK day, riders decided to ignore red lights, speed limits and a ban of ATV's and dirt bikes on highways to "celebrate MLK day." It is stunning that no one got killed speeding through a busy intersection willy nilly. It's not like cops on Miami do not have better things to do than scraping people off the asphalt.

7)Liam Neeson- This guy is one of my favorite actors and whose latest, Taken 3, was actually pretty good beyond the hyper kinetic editing. But when he shoots his mouth off about the "gun problem" in the USA all I can think of is one word: hypocrite. Every single poster of his from the past five years has him holding a gun and 90% of his movies contain him shooting people. Do not bitch about the same thing bringing you in millions every year, dumb ass. Keep to making good movies and keep your trap shut about things you not only don't understand, but profit well from. Sigh.

6)James Rhein of Middletown, NY- Few stories make me laugh as hard as this one. Seems James Rhein decided one day that his home, one he shared with his wife, was costing too much to fix up. So what was his grand plan? He went and rented a bulldozer and razed the place to the ground, all of their stuff still inside, as well as gas and electricity still on. This guy had enough brain power to make all of the arrangements to wreck said house, but didn't bother with anything, including telling his wife what he was up to. I am guessing a divorce is also in his future to add to his upcoming trial for criminal mischief.

5)Austerity- Contrary to what douchebags like "professor" Hendrickson say, austerity has NEVER worked in the history of mankind, yet we keep doing it. Greece followed this path for six years to which to rich got richer and the rest of the country fell into dire poverty. Well, today Greek voters said enough and voted in it's first leftist government in decades with an overwhelming victory by a people who said no more. This puts them into a head on collision with the Euro who may demand more austerity to which they will tell them to Fuck off, which is the correct answer here. We are hearing the exact same bullshit from the right and the rich in this country which will be the next two on my list.

4)Jamie Dimon and Jeff Green- The DAVOS group met this week which is the equivalent to a meeting of SPECTER with Blofeld overseeing the whole thing. During the evil part of the conference, which was most of it, they talked about income inequality and how it was destroying the world. Then they went to a catered lunch with 45$ hot dogs and barrels of expensive caviar. The best was Jamie Dimon explaining why they didn't need to change anything which flies in the face of reason of how bad things are. The winner was Jeff Green who literally told people that were not rich that they had to do with less. Does the phrase "let them eat cake" mean anything to you? As Greek voters show, if you run them into the ground and voting is still possible, things can still changes when you fail to convince the masses that their shit pies they have been eating are delicious still. You two suck balls.

3)The clown car of Republicans running for President- Not having learned anything from the last two elections, a dozen or more Republicans are all looking to run which makes those of us who write for a living, or tell jokes, giddy in anticipation. Long shots like Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, and, my personal favorite, Lindsey Graham, have all said they are looking into it, which is funny as they have a zero percent chance of winning. Even better, Sarah Palin, Ben Carson and the Donald have also hinted at running which is a writer's wet dream. Ted Cruz has got the crazy vote sewn up, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush both suffer from too much name recognition, and heavyweights (pun intended) Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee have as much chance as me winning. All of this will split the vote again and we may have a repeat of last time where the flavor of the week wins out, only to replaced when they make some unbelievable gaffe. 2016 looks terrible between this and whoever wins out over Hillary.

2)Unvaccinated kids- I have a science degree, know several doctors and can read just about any scientific study and tell you whether it is a good study or not. All of this points to no discernable issues with vaccinations and zero evidence that they cause autism. I actually know several people studying this specifically and the common conclusion in the scientific community say the fact we are having children later in life may be a huge factor in the rise of autism, not vaccinations. Because of people allegedly better educated than others falling for this crap, we have to recognize that having even a Master's doesn't protect some people from acting like idiots. Ohh, you read it on the internet, it must be true. An outbreak of measles at Disneyland hammered this point home as that area is one of the least vaccinated groups in the country. And this isn't Appalachia or Compton, it's a highly affluent area filled with dumb white people. Now hundreds are infected by a disease that was all but gone since 2000. This is that lack of trust I have been telling you about that is destroying our society. When doctors are no longer believed, the Rubicon has been crossed.

1)MSM and Deflate-gate- Way too much has been made about this story that is total bull. Yes, I live in MA and I legally must write good things about the Patriots, but even if this had been the fucking Dallas Cowboys, I would still defend them. Allegedly, two pounds of pressure was missing from 11 or 12 balls on the Patriots side. This was fixed at halftime. So, the Patriots played worse with the balls in the first half, than with the fully inflatable ones of the second half and may have resulted in the interception Tom Brady had in the second quarter. Wouldn't sabotage be the more likely answer as a deflated ball cannot be thrown as far and that is exactly what happened in the first half? Physics are not part of these stories as countless articles and news casts keep repeating the lie that these balls are easier to throw. They aren't and physics proves that. Physics also proves that these balls may have lost air due to simple atmospheric conditions, and concurred by several scientists asked about this. The real reason all of this is being blown out of proportion is Vegas. For some inane reason, when the teams were first announced, the Seahawks were 2 and half point favorites. 80% of the bets then went for the Pats, meaning the casinos and bookies of the world stood to lose a fortune if the Patriots win, perhaps even into the billions. This is a rare mistake and to do it for the Superbowl is unheard of. I wonder if they are not using their influence to cause as much commotion as possible to pray that Seattle comes out ahead. Anyway you look at it, this story is crap and the media is overdoing it again. So congratulations MSM you are indeed douchebag of the week.